A Lesson in Teamwork

Sleep eluded me last night. When the alarm rang at 4:45 I really wasn’t feeling it. I debated whether or not to ride this morning, but with the Malaria Campaign participants counting on me and fully expecting a good turn out for our morning ride, I was up and prepping in no time. My legs ached. I had a low grade headache. I wasn’t looking forward to what was billed as “Wicked Wednesday”, a fast midweek ride. I dressed more warmly than I needed to, fully expecting that I would be riding alone watching all the others speed off into the sunrise.

It was a pretty morning. I made my way to the Rusty Bridge and soon others were arriving. We started off at a quick, but reasonable pace, and it wasn’t until a couple of miles into the ride before a rider decided to pick up the pace. We all followed. On Old County Rd our group split, with three of us taking the shorter route and about 5 riders going to tackle the hill at Askewton. Our little band of three worked together to remain ahead of the other group and not get caught. That is only possible if we maintain average speeds above 20 mph. We formed a tight three person pace line, all sharing the lead at times, and then rotating to the back for a rest. We arrived at the turnaround point a full minute before the other group. As we headed back home, we all maintained the pace line together, and found our speeds increasing. Places where I routinely go about 30 mph we were now traveling 36. Places where I routinely ride 18-20 mph, we were doing 28 mph. When we work together, we were much more efficient.

I set 3 annual personal best speeds on segments I track, all of them very close to lifetime personal bests. That is only possible with teamwork.

Yes, the connections to the Malaria Campaign are obvious, so I’ll not go into detail about that.

At the end of the day, I was tired, but invigorated by the speed work and just riding on a beautiful morning.